F1 | Ferrari, the report from free practice at Istanbul Park

The Formula 1 World Championship returned after nine years to Turkey, at Istanbul Park. And Friday's free practice, for all twenty drivers on track, was dedicated to the search for grip for a series of reasons. The 5.338 meters that rise in the suburb of Tuzla, in the Asian part of the Turkish metropolis, have in fact recently been reasphalted and the surface is less abrasive than the previous one. Furthermore, very early this morning the organizers decided to wash the asphalt to remove an excess of oily bitumen that had come to the surface. Adding to these elements the rather low temperatures that characterized the entire day, one can understand why the best times remained far from the track record of 1'24"770 obtained by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005, on the occasion of the first edition of the race.

FP1. The first session was therefore extremely anomalous, with the track extremely slippery and still damp in certain parts. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel took the third and fifth fastest times respectively, running for a long time on Hard tyres. The total number of laps completed by the Ferraris was 55 laps: 26 for Charles, who was making his debut at Istanbul Park, and 29 for Sebastian. The Monegasque achieved a best time of 1'35"507, while his teammate achieved a good 1'35"620.

FP2. During the 90 minutes of the afternoon, the track conditions, now completely dry and with slightly higher air and asphalt temperatures, progressively improved, allowing all the drivers to significantly improve their performances. Both Charles and Sebastian, who clocked 45 and 41 laps respectively, started the session with Medium tires to evaluate the behavior of that compound and continue the set-up work. The two then switched to the Soft compound with which they worked in qualifying configuration, obtaining their respective best times: the Monegasque lapped in fact in 1'28”731, a good reference for second position, while the German stopped at eighth place with 1'30”022.

Plan. Tomorrow the cars will take to the track at 12pm local time (10am CET) for the third free practice session: it will be an important 60 minutes because the track will probably improve significantly further. Qualifying will begin at 15pm (13pm CET), while the eighth edition of the Turkish Grand Prix will start on Sunday 15 November at 13.10pm (11.10am CET).